Chinese icons fight gaming in
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Online advertising in China is registering double-digit year-on-year growth thus far in 2007.

The sector is set to breach the RMB 10 billion barrier, according to (pdf) Nielsen Online's AdRelevance service (1 US dollar = 7.46 Chinese Yuan/RMB), writes sister site MarketingCharts.

The value of online display advertising in China reached RMB 2.6 billion in the third quarter of 2007, an increase of 14 percent over the previous quarter.

Total online display ad value for the year to date is RMB 6.6 billion, Nielsen said - for each of the first three quarters: RMB 1.7 billion, RMB 2.3 billion and 2.6 billion, respectively.

The peak for online display advertising in China occurred in September, with RMB 1 billion recorded, the highest in the past nine months, according to Nielsen's data.

"The online advertising market in China is booming and catching up fast with advertising in traditional media. Judging by its current growth rate, we anticipate that the year will finish not only achieving double-digit growth in online advertising, but also reaching the RMB10 billion mark in value terms," said Sail Ma, analytic & research director, Nielsen Online, Greater China and Southeast Asia.

Among other Chinese online display ad data released:

• The cumulative number of advertisers and campaigns for the year to date was 2,661 and 19,049, respectively.
• Automobile, IT/Electronics, FMCG (CPG) and Finance were the top four sectors contributing to overall growth and accounted for over 60 percent of total ad value in the China online market so far this year.
• In the past nine months, the ad value of the top 50 advertisers accounted for 47 percent of total online advertising market, and 31 percent of the total number of campaigns.
• Online advertising by big spenders Faw-Mazda, ING Group, Eachnet, Lenovo, Samsung, China Mobile and Nissan, contributed to an online ad value exceeding RMB 100 million for the past three quarters combined.

"The market will continue to grow, with estimated ad value increasing close to RMB 3 billion as we enter the last quarter of the year, and contributing to an estimated full year spending of RMB 10 billion," Ma said.